News Topics
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May 7, 2024
Eliud Kipchoge’s family threatened after death of Kelvin Kiptum
Two-time Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge says he feared for the lives of his family during a campaign of online abuse that wrongly linked him to the death of fellow Kenyan marathon runner Kelvin Kiptum. Kiptum, the world record holder who looked set to challenge Kipchoge's dominance over 26.2 miles, died aged...
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May 7, 2024
Will Paris Be Ready for the Olympics?
The 2024 Olympic Games are little more than two months away. Hosted in Paris for the first time in a hundred years, it’s also a showcase for the so-called “new” Olympic model — requiring as little construction of new infrastructure as possible to reduce the bloat and expense of hosting...
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May 7, 2024
The Toronto Marathon: a series of unfortunate events
This year’s Toronto Marathon reached unprecedented levels of disorganization. There were overcrowded buses to the starting line, too few meals and fluids available to runners and plenty of other chaotic obstacles for participants to endure. Here’s how thousands survived. Running Magazine
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May 7, 2024
Equinox Rolls Out Longevity Membership Priced at $3K Per Month
Equinox and Function Health announced their partnership last month, ushering in a new era in hyper-personalized health and integrated personal training. Officially dubbed “Optimize by Equinox,” the longevity membership begins with a biomarker test from Function Health, which examines 100 biomarkers to reveal health information about major organs, metabolic and immune systems. Equinox also...
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May 6, 2024
Runner Disqualified As Winner From OC Marathon Due To Cheating
An Orange County man was disqualified Sunday as winner of the OC marathon, event officials said in a statement Monday. The Fountain Valley runner was disqualified for receiving unauthorized assistance from someone on a bike. According to City News Service, the runner received fluids from a spectator in violation of...
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May 3, 2024
‘A Swoosh Affair’: Nike Accused of Undue Influence on Picking Olympics’ Toughest Marathon Team
The Kenyan Olympic marathon team is maybe the hardest to crack in sports, with dozens of the world’s best long-distance runners clawing for only three spots every four years. And every four years, it seems, there’s a furor about Nike jamming an unqualified athlete onto the team. Nike sponsors Athletics...
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May 2, 2024
Ultrarunning con man cheated employees and charities
What seemed like a remarkable running-inspired charity endeavour has turned into a shocking tale of deception and unpaid debts. Extreme endurance athlete Tomasz Drybala of London claimed to be raising a whopping $1.3 million for UNICEF by running the circumference of the Earth, as reported in MailOnline—but it now appears that Drybala...
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May 2, 2024
Fox Factory Posts Q1 Loss as Sales Fall in Mid-Teens, Bike Sales Post $65M Decline
Fox Factory Holding Corp. reported a 16.6 percent decrease in net sales for the first quarter to $333.5 million compared to net sales of $399.9 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2023. Aftermarket Applications Group (AAG) net sales declined $36.9 million, or 26.6 percent, year-over-year. The decrease in AAG...
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May 2, 2024
iFIT, Freemotion Take Hybrid Fitness to New Heights With AI Coach
The commercial equipment brand has long embraced its relationship with parent company iFIT, whose vast library of fitness and wellness content, including around 18,000 workouts from expert coaches, is available to stream on Freemotion’s newest cardio machines. Soon, iFIT will be launching its AI Coach, an artificial intelligence-powered digital coach that interacts...
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May 2, 2024
Peloton CEO Steps Down; Company Cutting About 400 Jobs
Barry McCarthy is stepping down as Peloton’s CEO, president and Board director. Peloton Board members Karen Boone and Chris Bruzzo will serve as interim Co-CEOs; Jay Hoag will become the chairperson of Peloton’s Board of Directors. Peloton Interactive, Inc. announced that Barry McCarthy is stepping down as president, CEO and Peloton Board director and take...
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May 2, 2024
Brooks Achieves Highest Quarterly Results in the Brand’s History in Q1
In the first quarter of 2024, the Seattle-based performance running brand reported a 9 percent year-over-year increase in revenue. This marks the company’s highest quarterly results in the brand’s history, Brooks said in a statement. In an interview with FN, Brooks’ new chief executive officer Dan Sheridan said that North America led...
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May 1, 2024
Amer Sports sells Enve Composites to private investment firm
Enve Composites has been sold by Amer Sports to PV3, a Utah-based private investment firm. Amer Sports’ chief operating officer Michael Hauge Sørensen said: “Enve has gone through major changes in the past years. The brand has positive momentum, and we see that it has good potential. Enve Composites was founded in 2007...
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May 1, 2024
Wolverine Worldwide Enters Licensing Agreements for Merrell and Saucony Brands
Wolverine World Wide, Inc. announced that it entered two new global licensing agreements as part of its ongoing “strategic transformation” into a brand-led growth company. Under the first agreement, Vida Shoes International will become the global licensee for Merrell and Saucony kids footwear, with rights to these products in almost all markets...
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April 30, 2024
Are sleep trackers hurting runners’ performance?
With increasing studies showing that better sleep can lead to faster speeds, many runners now rely on their GPS watches’ sleep trackers for insights into how well they sleep. However, a recent study suggests that the use of sleep trackers may have the opposite effect, leading to orthosomnia–an unhealthy obsession with...
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April 30, 2024
Adidas Swings to Q1 Profit as DTC Drives Top-Line Growth
Adidas is reporting that currency-neutral (c-n) revenues increased 8 percent in the first quarter of 2024, compared to the the 2023 first quarter. The better-than-expected performance was said to be driven by the “strong momentum” of the underlying Adidas business, which grew 5 percent in the period. In addition, the...
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April 29, 2024
2025 London Marathon receives nearly 850,000 applicants
The marathon running boom has reached a record high. As the public ballot for the 2025 TCS London Marathon closed on Friday, organizers reported they received a record 840,318 applications, smashing last year’s mark of 578,374. The 2024 London Marathon saw just over 50,000 finishers, a record for the event,...
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April 27, 2024
Rapha abruptly closes North America office and lays off staff
Rapha has abruptly closed its North American office and laid off six of its eight staff as the clothing brand says it is “realigning Rapha to better reflect our strategic priorities and current market dynamics.” Rapha CEO Francois Convercey siad that the layoffs were part of a consolidation plan. Rapha’s...
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April 26, 2024
What millennials are doing to confront the ‘quarter-life crisis’
We’ve all heard of a midlife crisis, but how about a quarter-life crisis? It’s now happening to people in their 20s. Whether it's harder, taking longer to find a career path that is meaningful to them or taking longer to find a partner, or moving to a new city, and...
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April 26, 2024
The Stages Cycling Saga Is Only Going to Get Messier
As Stages product owners know quite well, the company had seemingly been on life support for the last year, visible to both consumers and industry watchers alike. This follows nearly a year of continued degradation of their product support responsiveness, and loss of key long-term leaders at the company. The...
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April 26, 2024
Gamification, Financial Rewards Drive Workout Motivation, Study Shows
Gamified, point-earning strategies and small financial incentives can encourage increased physical activity, especially when the two are combined, according to new research. An 18-month study presented this month at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session examined the effect that earning points or small amounts of money had on the...
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April 26, 2024
Bike-carrier demand helps propel Thule’s 9% Q1 net sales gain
Buoyed by Sports & Cargo Carriers, Thule Group's first-quarter net sales increased 8.7% year-over-year. Sales of Sports & Cargo Carriers, including the largest sub-category bike carriers, jumped 16% compared with the same time last year. Overall net sales of SEK 2,420 ($222 million) for the quarter topped the SEK 2,226...
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April 25, 2024
Why REI Co-op Is Doubling Down on Running Shoes and Exiting Its Branded Footwear Business
REI Co-op confirmed that it is exiting its REI-branded footwear business after 2024, four years after the company said that it would begin producing its own shoes. In the time since its initial launch, REI has delivered eco-friendly hiking boots, trail runners and more. As the retailer exits one business,...
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April 25, 2024
Cancellation of 2024 Zuma Beach Triathlon in Malibu
Early this year, Malibu City Council awarded a race permit and contract to the Zuma Foundation – with a new event, the Zuma Beach Triathlon, replacing the Malibu Triathlon and scheduled for September 14-15, 2024. However, the Zuma Foundation has requested that the City of Malibu postpone The Zuma Beach Triathlon...
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April 24, 2024
Stages Cycling executives join Giant after suit and apparent shutdown
At least four former Stages Cycling executives have joined Giant Manufacturing as the power meter and smart bike brand has apparently stopped operations. Meanwhile Giant, which manufactures many Stages products in Taiwan, is suing Stages for about $14 million in unpaid invoices. AIPS Technology, a Giant Manufacturing subsidiary, filed suit...
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April 23, 2024
Shimano first-quarter sales down 20% from last year
Shimano is reporting that its first quarter sales were 100,557 million yen ($650 million), down 20.2% from the same quarter last year. In the company’s bicycle division, sales were down 22.6% to 76,090 million yen. Company-wide, ordinary income was up 0.9% from the first quarter of last year. Shimano did...